Red Dead Redemption 2

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and Intel Arc B390 combination delivers a fundamentally lopsided experience in Red Dead Redemption 2, where a high-end desktop processor is paired with an integrated graphics solution that struggles to maintain playable frame rates. The data indicates that this pairing ranks in the 2568th position out of 2902 tested combinations, placing it in the bottom 12% of all configurations. This is a case where the processor’s substantial computational capabilities are rendered almost entirely irrelevant by the graphics subsystem’s severe limitations, resulting in a benchmark profile that is dominated by GPU-bound bottlenecks across every resolution and settings preset.

CPU Role

The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 is a 20-core, 20-thread processor based on the Arrow Lake architecture, built on a 3 nm process by TSMC. It operates with a base clock of 2.40 GHz and a boost clock of 5.30 GHz, which provides a wide frequency range for both lightly-threaded and heavily-threaded workloads. The processor features a 30 MB shared L3 cache and a 102.4 GB/s memory bandwidth with dual-channel DDR5 support. In synthetic benchmarks, this CPU achieves a Cinebench R23 multi-core score of 42,216 and a single-core score of 5,960, placing it in the 93rd percentile of all CPUs tested.

In the context of Red Dead Redemption 2, the CPU’s raw processing power is more than sufficient to handle the game’s simulation and AI workloads. The data shows that the processor’s nearest rivals in average benchmark score include the AMD EPYC 4464P with a delta of -0.3%, the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F with a delta of 0.3%, and the AMD EPYC 7343 with a delta of 0.7%. These margins are extremely tight, indicating that the Core Ultra 7 265 is performing exactly as expected for its class. However, the game’s measured frame rates do not reflect this capability. At 1080p Low settings, the combo achieves an average of 51 FPS, which is the highest score in the entire measured dataset, yet this is still a modest result for a processor that scores 42,216 points in multi-core rendering tests.

The discrepancy between CPU potential and actual game performance points to a fundamental imbalance. Red Dead Redemption 2 is a title that can scale with multiple cores, but the 20 threads available here are never fully utilized because the graphics pipeline becomes the limiting factor long before the CPU reaches its capacity. The processor’s high boost clock of 5.30 GHz should provide excellent single-thread performance for the game’s main thread, but the measured results suggest that even at 1080p Low, where CPU overhead is typically highest, the frame rate is capped by the GPU. The CPU’s role in this combo is essentially to sit idle, waiting for the Intel Arc B390 to produce frames that it can process, which it does without breaking a sweat.

GPU Role

The Intel Arc B390 is an integrated graphics processor based on the Xe3-LPG architecture, featuring 1,536 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, and 24 raster operations pipelines. It operates at a base clock of 300 MHz with a boost clock of 2,500 MHz, and it relies entirely on system memory for its frame buffer, with the memory size, type, bus width, and bandwidth all listed as "System Shared" or "System Dependent." This is a fundamental weakness for gaming, as the GPU must compete with the CPU for memory bandwidth, and the system’s DDR5 memory, while fast, is not optimized for the high-bandwidth demands of a graphics workload.

The GPU’s benchmark results are stark. In 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12, it scores 1,482 points, which places it in the 9th percentile of all GPUs tested. Its nearest rivals in this benchmark are the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX with a delta of 1.3%, the NVIDIA GeForce 800M with a delta of 1.5%, and the NVIDIA GeForce GT 625 OEM with a delta of 2.5%. These are all legacy or entry-level mobile parts from over a decade ago, which contextualizes the Arc B390’s performance level. With a pixel rate of 60.00 GPixel/s and a texture rate of 120.0 GTexel/s, the GPU is theoretically capable of rendering, but the measured FPS in Red Dead Redemption 2 tells a different story.

The GPU’s role in this combo is to be the bottleneck, and it does so decisively. The frame rates scale almost linearly with resolution and settings, which is a classic sign of GPU limitation. At 4K Ultra, the combo produces an average of 11 FPS, which is unplayable by any standard. At 1080p Low, it reaches 51 FPS, which is the only setting where the game approaches playability, and even then, it is marginal. The GPU’s 80 W TDP and lack of dedicated VRAM mean that it has to thrash the system memory bus, and the results reflect this inefficiency. The data suggests that the Arc B390 is not designed for this workload, and its performance in this game is consistent with its low percentile ranking among all GPUs.

Resolution Scaling

The measured FPS data reveals a clear pattern of performance degradation as resolution increases, which confirms that the GPU is the dominant limiting component. At 1920x1080 with Low settings, the combo averages 51 FPS. Moving to 2560x1440 with the same settings drops the average to 38 FPS, a reduction of 13 FPS or approximately 25%. At 3840x2160 Low, the average falls to 25 FPS, which is roughly 51% of the 1080p performance. This scaling is consistent with a GPU that has fixed rendering resources and is being asked to push more pixels with each resolution step.

The scaling becomes even more pronounced at higher settings. At 1080p High, the average is 32 FPS, which drops to 24 FPS at 1440p High and 16 FPS at 4K High. The percentage drop from 1080p to 4K at High settings is 50%, which is identical to the percentage drop at Low settings. This consistency suggests that the GPU is not hitting any memory or bandwidth wall at specific resolutions, but rather that its raw compute throughput is simply insufficient for the task. The gap between settings at a given resolution is also telling. At 1080p, the difference between Low and Ultra is 28 FPS (51 vs 23), while at 4K, the difference is 14 FPS (25 vs 11). The absolute gap narrows at higher resolutions because the GPU is already so saturated that additional graphical features have less incremental impact.

The frame time data, where available, reinforces this analysis. At 1080p Medium, the combo shows a minimum FPS of 33 and a maximum of 44, with an average of 39. At 1440p Medium, the minimum is 24 and the maximum is 33, with an average of 29. At 4K Medium, the minimum is 16 and the maximum is 22, with an average of 19. The frame time variance is relatively tight, which indicates that the GPU is producing a steady stream of frames rather than stuttering, but the overall throughput is too low for a smooth experience. The resolution scaling data clearly shows that this combo is GPU-bound at every resolution, with the CPU having ample headroom to spare.

How This Combo Ranks

The combination of the Intel Core Ultra 7 265 and Intel Arc B390 ranks 2568th out of 2902 tested combos in Red Dead Redemption 2, placing it in the bottom 11.5% of all configurations. This ranking is almost entirely attributable to the GPU, as the CPU is a high-performing part that would rank near the top of any processor-only comparison. The disparity between the CPU’s 93rd percentile ranking and the combo’s low overall ranking highlights the severe mismatch in this pairing.

When compared to other combos, the data suggests that this configuration is beaten by a vast majority of systems, many of which likely feature much weaker CPUs paired with even modest discrete GPUs. The combo’s best-case scenario, 51 FPS at 1080p Low, is a marginal playable result, but it is far below what most gamers would consider acceptable for a title like Red Dead Redemption 2, which is a visually demanding open-world game. The ranking of 2568 out of 2902 indicates that there are only 334 tested combos that perform worse, which is a very small fraction of the database.

The CPU’s nearest rivals in synthetic benchmarks, such as the AMD EPYC 4464P and the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F, would likely produce similar in-game results if paired with the same GPU, because the bottleneck is so severe. The ranking is not a reflection of the CPU’s capabilities, but rather a measure of the GPU’s inability to keep up with the game’s rendering demands. For a user who already owns this processor, the data strongly suggests that adding any discrete GPU would result in a massive improvement in frame rates, as the CPU is clearly not the limiting factor in this game.

FAQ

Q: What is the best frame rate this combo can achieve in Red Dead Redemption 2?

A: The highest average FPS measured is 51 at 1920x1080 with Low settings. This is the only setting where the combo approaches a playable frame rate, and it is still below the 60 FPS target that many players prefer.

Q: How does the CPU perform relative to its rivals in synthetic benchmarks?

A: The Intel Core Ultra 7 265 has an average benchmark score of 64,640, which is within 0.7% of its nearest rivals. It is 0.3% slower than the AMD EPYC 4464P, 0.3% faster than the Intel Core Ultra 7 265F, and 0.7% faster than the AMD EPYC 7343.

Q: Is the GPU or CPU the limiting factor in this game?

A: The GPU is overwhelmingly the limiting factor. The frame rates drop by roughly 50% when moving from 1080p to 4K at the same settings, which is a classic sign of GPU saturation. The CPU’s performance is far above what is needed for this game’s frame rates.

Q: What is the GPU’s percentile ranking among all tested GPUs?

A: The Intel Arc B390 is in the 9th percentile of all GPUs, with an average benchmark score of 1,482 points in 3DMark Steel Nomad DX12. This places it in the company of very old entry-level parts like the NVIDIA GeForce GT 520MX and GT 710.

Q: What are the measured frame rates at 1440p Medium settings?

A: At 2560x1440 with Medium settings, the combo averages 29 FPS, with a minimum of 24 FPS and a maximum of 33 FPS. This is below the threshold for smooth gameplay in most action-adventure titles.

Q: How does the combo’s overall ranking compare to the total number of tested configurations?

A: The combo ranks 2568th out of 2902 tested configurations, placing it in the bottom 12% of all systems tested in this game. This indicates that the vast majority of other hardware combinations deliver better performance.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data for this combo covers four settings presets (Low, Medium, High, Ultra) across three resolutions (1920x1080, 2560x1440, 3840x2160), providing a complete picture of performance scaling.

At 1920x1080, the combo achieves its best results. With Low settings, the average FPS is 51. With Medium settings, the average drops to 39 FPS, with a minimum of 33 and a maximum of 44. High settings produce an average of 32 FPS, while Ultra settings yield an average of 23 FPS. This represents a 55% drop from Low to Ultra, which is significant but not as severe as the drop at higher resolutions.

At 2560x1440, the performance degrades noticeably. Low settings average 38 FPS, Medium settings average 29 FPS with a minimum of 24 and maximum of 33, High settings average 24 FPS, and Ultra settings average 17 FPS. The drop from 1080p to 1440p at Low settings is 13 FPS, which is a 25% reduction. This pattern holds across all settings, with the absolute FPS values decreasing by roughly 25-30% at each resolution step.

At 3840x2160, the combo is severely challenged. Low settings average 25 FPS, Medium settings average 19 FPS with a minimum of 16 and maximum of 22, High settings average 16 FPS, and Ultra settings average 11 FPS. The 4K Ultra result of 11 FPS is the lowest measured value in the entire dataset, and it is effectively unplayable. The scaling from 1080p Low to 4K Low shows a 51% reduction in frame rate, confirming that the GPU’s rendering capacity is the primary constraint.

The data shows a consistent pattern: the combo can barely handle 1080p Low, struggles at 1440p, and is unusable at 4K. The lack of dedicated VRAM and the shared memory architecture of the Intel Arc B390 are likely contributing factors to this poor scaling, as the GPU is forced to rely on system memory bandwidth that is also needed by the CPU. The frame time data at Medium settings shows relatively stable performance, with the gap between minimum and maximum FPS being around 11 FPS at 1080p, 9 FPS at 1440p, and 6 FPS at 4K, indicating that the GPU is not stuttering but simply running out of throughput.